The Snow League, created by snowboard legend Shaun White, uses the tagline “The Future of Winter Sports Competition” with the dream of discovering the next great halfpipe star. On top of bringing in the biggest names in snowboarding, White’s rising league has put focus on some of the lesser known athletes while making sure to engage the children, who are indeed the future of snowboarding.

And on Thursday night, in front of a packed house inside the Viceroy Snowmass ahead of The Snow League’s return to Buttermilk Ski Area, he spent time signing autographs with the young Aspen Valley Ski & Snowboard Club athletes during a special athlete draw that included the pro riders from the weekend’s competition.

“I love being back in Aspen,” White said. “I met some of the kids. Shout out to the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club. I love seeing all the kids here tonight. That’s why we are doing it, the league, the future generation here. I love seeing all the kids mix it up with the Olympians in the room. It’s amazing.”

The Snow League athlete draw was co-hosted by AVSC, with the local nonprofit receiving the revenue from the ticket sales to put back into the club. The Snow League even donated $20,000 to AVSC to help make the draw happen.

Among the competing athletes this week is Eagle’s Jake Pates, who began his snowboarding career as a young AVSC rider. He and The Snow League presented a signed and framed athlete jersey to Nichole Mason, AVSC’s snowboard program director, during Thursday’s event. Mason is a former national team coach who has helped get many riders to the Olympics over the years.

“For me, it’s so much more than The Snow League. It’s my career. I’ve been working with so many of you for so many years. All of you I’ve known since you were little nuggets, and that is just so special to me,” Mason said to the pro athletes. “And to see the next generation of riders and to have this project where we can continue to give access to kids in snowboarding and never say no to a kid who walks through the doors is just so special.”

Pates did advance out of qualifying on Friday and will compete Saturday on finals day. He’s competing in the same halfpipe he learned to ride in as an 8-year-old AVSC athlete.

“I’m super grateful for AVSC,” he said. “This is where it all started for me. My family had moved from Eagle to Glenwood and to Basalt for a few years, and that was right at the beginning where I started to snowboard. The first club I joined was AVSC.”

Prior to the draw, which determined what heat each athlete would compete in during Friday’s qualifying, a handful of riders took part in a special pre-event press conference with the media. This included 2026 Olympic gold medalist Yuto Totsuka and his Japanese countryman, 2026 Olympic bronze medalist Ryusei Yamada. Sena Tomita and Mitsuki Ono represented Japan on the women’s side.

Pates and Oregon’s Alessandro Barbieri represented the U.S. during the men’s press conference, while Maddy Schaffrick of Steamboat Springs and California’s Maddie Mastro held it down for the U.S. women.

“It was nice to come home, reset and have something to look forward to,” Mastro said of jumping into The Snow League right after the Olympics. She finished 12^th of 12 riders in the Olympic halfpipe final on Feb. 12 in Livigno, Italy. “I’m really grateful that we have two more stops of The Snow League, and I think it’s also great because everyone gets another opportunity to display and show all the hard work we’ve done for four years. Snowboarding is at the highest level it has been for men and women.”

The draw also included the unveiling of the new Snow League trophy, created by Tiffany and Co. The famed jeweler is also behind many other iconic sport trophies, working closely with the NFL, MLB and NBA, among other major organizations.

“Obviously very proud of the events I’ve won and the trophies I’ve earned over my career, but when it came to The Snow League, I felt like we wanted to touch on every little detail,” said White, a three-time Olympic gold medalist. “And when it came to the trophy, I felt like that’s a big detail. We want to make sure this is right, we want to do something special and show the competitors what they mean to us.”

Etched into the shiny new trophy will be the names of the overall season winners, to be determined following the fourth and final event of the league’s first season next month in Laax, Switzerland.

Friday’s qualifying results

Mastro was among the top qualifiers on Friday. The Snow League began with 12 women and 20 men, divided into four heats per gender, with the top eight per gender advancing to Saturday’s bracket. The heat winners automatically advanced, while others were put into a last-chance qualifier to battle it out for the remaining spots.

Saturday marks the beginning of the head-to-head action that makes The Snow League standout. Riders will go one-on-one through the tournament until only one is left standing on either side.

The top four women to advance to Saturday were Japan’s Sara Shimizu (93, will be No. 1 seed), Mastro (88), Japan’s Rise Kudo (85.75), and Ono (85). Also advancing were Tomita, Spain’s Queralt Castellet, Japan’s Ruki Tomita and Canada’s Brooke D’Hondt.

Schaffrick officially finished ninth and did not advance. Canada’s Felicity Geremia, Michigan’s Zoe Kalapos and Steamboat’s Rochelle Weinberg also came up short in qualifying.

The women’s quarterfinal pairings are: Castellet vs. Kudo; Ruki Tomita vs. Mastro; Sena Tomita vs. Ono; and D’Hondt vs. Shimizu. Should it come down to it, Ruki is the younger sister of Sena.

Yamada earned the No. 1 seed on the men’s side with his 91 scored in qualifying. He was followed in second by Totsuka (90.5), in third by Japan’s Ruka Hirano (90.25) and in fourth by Telluride’s Lucas Foster (67.75). The other men to advance include Pates, New Zealand’s Cam Melville Ives, Longmont’s Chase Blackwell and Brazil’s Pat Burgener.

Idaho Olympian Chase Josey was the first left out, qualifying ninth. The biggest name who was unable to advance was Japan’s Ayumu Hirano (no relation to Ruka), the 2022 Olympic gold medalist, who officially finished 19^th overall. Barbieri was among the Americans — the others being Joey Okesson and Ryan Wachendorfer — who did not make it out of qualifying.

The men’s quarterfinal pairings are: Melville Ives vs. Hirano; Blackwell vs. Totsuka; Pates vs. Foster; and Burgener vs. Yamada.

The Snow League, which made its debut last winter in Aspen before holding its second-ever event this past December in China, has yet to see some other big names enter the fold, such as California’s Chloe Kim or Australia’s Scotty James.

Sena Tomita and Totsuka are the reigning Aspen Snow League champs. Ayumu Hirano and China’s Patti Zhou won earlier this winter in China.

Saturday’s quarterfinal action gets underway at 9:40 a.m. at Buttermilk. The women’s semifinals and finals are scheduled for 11:50 a.m., with the men to follow starting around 1:10 p.m. Tickets are required to access the competition venue, with general admission costing $60. A lift ticket or season pass will also get fans in the door.

NEIL FRANCES presents CLUB NF (during “halftime” after the quarterfinals) and three-time Grammy Award winner Wyclef Jean (after the men’s finals) are also set to perform as part of The Snow League action. No additional tickets are required to attend the concerts.